Chapter 10 - No Way

He looked up once more and saw the leaves dripping with blood. The leaves were blood.

"Look up!" Keller shouted as the trees shook.

The trunks twisted until every small trunk was tangled, creating a giant twisted trunk. The forest seemed awakened and shivered. The ground quaked, and thousands of buzzing insects snapped into flight.

In the distance, they looked like fireflies, but as they came closer, Knight saw that instead of regular bodies, they had eyeballs.

"Cover yourself!"

Everyone ducked quickly, avoiding the insects with their pointy tails.

Knight remained low, finding cover behind a huge boulder. But then it moved, making Knight jump away. Soon, thousands of tiny deafening insects crawled out from underneath. For a moment, the boulder was like a rotten fruit infested with insects. When the insects were gone, the boulder deflated and turned into a puddle of blood.

"Northeast!" Keller shouted, eyeing the hurricane of rocks and trees coming their way.

With intense focus, Knight transformed into his massive dark wolf form. The rest followed suit with various fur colors. They grabbed their belongings with their sharp teeth and stormed off through the chaos.

They ran toward the mouth of the cave, leaping, jumping, sliding, and dodging to avoid green centipedes, flying eyeballs, and moving branches.

They were close, but then the sky darkened with sudden clouds, and the rain began to fall, hissing and steaming as it hit the ground.

Knight's wolf growled when a drop of rain burned part of his back. Blinding lightning struck near them, and a deafening roar shook everything.

Kingsley's dark-brown wolf beside Knight groaned but didn't stop. They were so focused on running and finding shelter that they hadn't seen the delighted witch hiding behind the thick bushes.

Everyone was caught off guard when the witch cast her spell. Knight, still running, was almost hit by the bluish light. But because Damien was behind him, she took the hit instead.

Knight smelled the burnt skin before he looked back and saw Damien's grayish wolf lying motionless on the wet grass, her mouth wide open, gasping for air. Her fur was drenched in blood.

Keller's brown wolf rounded a corner and chased the witch. Knight followed him while Harper's auburn wolf and Kingsley stayed behind to aid and carry Damien to safety.

The shadowy figure was no longer at her hiding place when Knight and Vynn's blue-gray wolf reached it. Keller dashed left just in time for Knight to see the pink-haired witch fire another spell from afar.

They barely avoided the electrifying spell by jumping, ducking, and turning left and right.

Seeing red, Knight bolted. The witch wore a black mask covering her entire face, but her hair peeked out. Her eyes were glassy, and her murmurs were barely audible as she cast another set of spells.

Keller, the fastest among them, was almost upon the witch when a sudden wind knocked him back, throwing him across the expanse. His body smashed into a tree's sturdy trunk.

The branches swiftly moved and caged Keller. Knight dove, growling. He snapped his jaw, but the witch dodged swiftly, and all he got was a part of her blue cloak. Underneath, she wore an all-black suit.

A sinister laugh echoed. "The dogs are here," she whispered. "Right on time."

Knight had a weird feeling she wasn't talking to him. The witch's expression was distant as if she wasn't entirely present.

But Knight didn't have the luxury of time to think. He attacked her, smashing his paw right into her jaw, drawing blood.

She hissed as she leaned on a tree, then flicked her wrist. The ground beneath Knight turned to mud, and he began to sink.

Vynn arrived just in time. With his mouth, he bit Knight's paw and dragged him back to solid ground.

Keller's wolf, more ferocious this time, emerged from behind and bit the witch's arm. Knight aimed for her exposed neck and was about to strike when a strong force midair smashed into him.

He didn't let go. His chest vibrated with a growl as he tried to kill the witch, but the strong wave kept stopping him.

Kingsley arrived, his wolf covered in blood. Suddenly, a violet-haired witch appeared out of nowhere, wearing the same black suit.

Seeing her kind in trouble, the violet-haired witch immediately began throwing sharp knives at them. The Werebeasts dodged swiftly, but once the witch murmured, the knives twisted and chased them.

No matter how hard Vynn tried to shake the knives off, they continued to follow until he was pierced right in his leg and thigh. His wolf slipped into the muddy ground and quickly became paralyzed.

Keller howled and, without hesitation, attacked the violet-haired witch, who screeched with laughter. But then another witch appeared out of thin air, wearing the same suit as the rest.

From afar, Knight couldn't see her hair because she was covered from head to toe. She murmured under her breath, and suddenly, all the wolves froze.

Knight tried to move, but no matter how much he struggled, it felt as if something was holding him down. The force was heavy and hot, gripping every muscle, trapping him from within.

Knight's eyes, the only thing he could move, darted to the newcomer who had easily immobilized them.

The witch was dragging someone along. It was a woman. When she didn't move as the witch wanted, she was slapped across the cheeks so hard that her body flew past the landscape and landed with a thud near Knight's paws.

Knight stiffened when he smelled her blood. It had been ten years, but he had never forgotten that otherworldly scent of fresh herbs mixed with spring, old books, and light.

Mate!

She remained motionless, and Knight's beast snapped. The fading fire that seemed to die after years of constant disappointment blazed like the glorious sun.

With a wildly beating heart, he cast his shivering eyes downward, only to witness a woman in battered clothes. She looked like she had been thrown across the world and swallowed by a tornado. She was heavily wounded, with scratches all over her fair skin, bleeding profusely, and breathing so heavily it seemed even the air wasn't enough to keep her alive.

Protect.

The violet-haired witch yanked his mate and ruthlessly slapped her cheeks again and again. She yelled something, but Knight's sanity had been lost in his immense anger, and he failed to hear the words.

His wolf tightened. It desired revenge. It wanted death.

Knight shattered the force holding him down. The force was strong, but his fury was stronger. His muscles burned from the relentless effort, but he didn't stop until each fiber snapped one by one.

By the time the witch noticed, she did nothing but widen her eyes as Knight's massive jaw wrapped tightly around her neck.

Without a second thought, he dispatched her, tasting the muddy tang on his tongue. He dropped the lifeless body like trash and spit the blood out, then turned his heavy gaze to the two remaining witches.

Knight was about to move, but in a fraction of a second, he saw something dangling from the neck of the witch who had slapped his mate. It was gleaming and small. He couldn't be wrong. It was the Night Howler!

Knight growled and dove to take it, but the witch gestured, and suddenly the grassy ground rose, creating a massive wall between him and her.

Through the Pack Link, Knight shouted, "She has the Night Howler!"

With that, his team was filled with renewed determination. They were still stuck under the invisible force, but Kingsley and Keller were already trying to break free. Vynn, however, remained motionless with knives struck all over him.

Knight jumped over the wall and landed on the other side. She had nowhere to go with the massive tree behind her. He ran and trapped the one possessing the Night Howler, but just as he was about to kill her, the figure vanished like smoke.

It was merely an illusion. The witch emerged from her hiding place behind a nearby rock and trapped Knight once again under the invisible force that enveloped him.

The pink-haired witch attacked Kingsley, firing spell after spell until she managed to wound one of his feet.

She was about to fire at Keller, but Knight's mate suddenly rose to her feet. Trembling and heavily weakened, she punched the witch to the ground.

They battled for dominance, distracting the second witch enough for Knight to find the weak point in her spell just below his left knee.

He moved his foot, cracking the spell, until he freed himself again. The witch saw him and immediately attacked. Knight jumped and ducked, his eyes blurry with his lightning-fast run, until he reached her.

He was so close to grabbing the Night Howler, but the witch motioned with her wrist. She pulled Knight's mate from the pink-haired witch like a puppet controlled by strings.

Her body jerked, and within a second, she was already in front of the witch, falling headfirst at her feet. The witch used his mate's body as a shield, greatly angering Knight.

Knight changed direction just in time to avoid hitting his mate, but the witch used the moment to fire an attack. Knight glimpsed the blue spell, the same one that had caused Damien to whimper in agony.

Everything happened so fast he didn't have time to change course. The spell would injure him, and the witches would escape. He would lose the Night Howler again, and his pack would face shame and embarrassment because of his failure to lead and fight well.

Knight thought it would be his end. A stupid and meaningless end. But then a body blocked his view and shielded him from the paralyzing spell.

The spell hit a solid frame, and soon his mate dropped horribly into the wet ground. Motionless, shocked, and bleeding, Knight growled, resounding into the unknown.

The anger and fear he felt consumed his remaining sanity. He jumped, baring his sharp fangs and ready to kill, but the witch curved a smile and vanished like a bubble in thin air.

She damn escaped!

Keller, from a distance, staggered and fell to the ground. His wounds were not healing, and he couldn't move at all.

The pink-haired witch he had been fighting was injured too. She was covered in blood but used her remaining energy to crawl, trying to reach Knight's mate. She murmured something under her breath, and Knight saw the spell she was about to fire aimed at the motionless woman.

Knight's wolf jerked in panic. Grabbing the witch by the throat, he snatched her in the other direction. He snapped her neck just as she finished her spell.

Instead of hitting his mate, the spell hit a nearby tree, and he saw how that massive tree dissolved, leaving no trace of its former state. It seemed it was transported somewhere else.

They meant to harm her, Knight thought. They meant to kill my mate.

Knight howled, scratching his throat. His chest burst, and he felt like cracking bones—witches' bones and blood specifically, just to satisfy his thirst and hunger.

Dropping the dead body, he immediately went to his mate. For a fraction of a second, he hesitated. He was in his wolf form, covered in blood. He knew there was something sinister swirling in his eyes at that moment.

That gaze that desired death and revenge. The look he always had whenever he saw witches. It was not the look he wanted his mate to see.

Considering it was their first meeting, he wanted to be presentable at least. But then he remembered her state. He remembered her wounds and the way her body had dropped horribly to the ground.

All his inhibition vanished. With renewed fear, he dashed to her side only to be frozen by what awaited him.

His breath caught in his lungs not because she was more beautiful than he had ever imagined, but because of her hair. She had white, gleaming hair.

He almost wanted to be deceived. His lips shivered. It couldn't be.

Knight refused to believe it, but witches' hair never lied. She was one of them. After everything, he realized that the kind he hated the most, the witches, was the kind his mate belonged to.

No way.